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God of Power, God of the People Some of the psalms are among the easiest parts of the Bible to understand.  The comforting message of Psalm 23, the expression of wonder at the night sky (...)

In the book of Acts three major summaries connect narratives to miracle stories and miracle stories to narratives (2:42-47; 4:32-35; 5:12-16). These summaries provide a general picture of the activities the new believers engaged in (...)

The Psalms enrich preaching during Holy Week and Easter, even if few preachers base an entire sermon on the Psalms. Jesus prayed the Psalms from the cross, and the Gospels quote the Psalms to tell (...)

In the last few weeks, we’ve read a series of lessons on the dangers of reducing the work of God to ritual formula, or trying to use our communal practices to avoid giving our hearts (...)

The opening verse of Psalm 15, asking who can be admitted to worship at the tabernacle/temple, makes for a daunting introduction to this “entrance liturgy” psalm.1 On one level, such questions may seem as remote (...)

For the third time in Matthew, Jesus finds himself embracing a new hometown. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. In doing so, prophecy was fulfilled (2:5-6). The first move finds the family fleeing Bethlehem and Herod’s (...)

As if on cue, Jesus sets foot on the stage immediately after John’s contrast of his baptism and the superior baptism which is to come. Matthew makes it amply clear that this superior figure of (...)

The second reading for the First Sunday of Christmas in this year of Matthew is clearly chosen to give further testimony to the pain and suffering so palpable in the story of the Massacre of (...)

The Letter to Titus gives us none of Christmas’s usual fare. It mentions neither Mary, Joseph, angels, nor shepherds. But it can take us into the Incarnation by another route. It prompts us to view (...)

When a psalm is divided up, like the one for this Sunday (verses 1-7, 17-19), the integrity of the psalm is lost. Then the beautifully intertwined words of lament to God and praise of God (...)